Luv Ka The End: Bumpy ride

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“Luv Ka The End” is Yashraj Film’s first foray into a genre they call “youth films”, or films they think are tailor-made for the under-25 audience. But as all teenagers will know, there’s a thin line between being cool and trying too hard. This film is trying too hard, and there’s no two ways about it.

Unfunny gags, over-smart dialogues and one-dimensional characters do not a cool film make. Nor do obvious product placements, for that matter.

Shraddha Kapoor plays Rhea Dialdas, a spunky teenager, in love with her boyfriend, who happens to be rich and the most popular boy in school. On the eve of her 18th birthday, while she is making plans to take their relationship to the “next level”, she discovers that the man of her dreams is actually part of a secret rich boys club which scores each member on how many girls they can sleep with. What’s more he puts up the evidence on the net for the whole world to see.

Seething with rage, Rhea, with the help of her two best friends, decides to get even with Luv Nanda. The trio then proceed to do a whole lot of blatantly illegal stuff, including pretty much stealing his car, smashing it with baseball bats and stealing his credit cards. Is this really what it takes to get over someone?

Then they drug him, dress him up in drag and also steal his date’s car. Throughout, the gags are uniformly unfunny and the acting doesn’t elevate them to any higher level. Shraddha Kapoor needs to polish up her acting skills – she can’t even pull off a genuinely surprised look convincingly. Tahaa Shah, who plays Luv is wooden and should join Kapoor in acting lessons.

Pushtie, who plays Rhea’s overweight, feisty best friend, is the only bright spot in the juvenile film. I wish director Bumpy and the film’s crew, most of which is made up of ex-MTV alumni, hadn’t tried so hard to be cool – it’s so uncool.

If you want to save yourself some heartache, stay away from this one. If you are a teenager though, you might want to give it a go. And as we know, there is no accounting for teenagers and their tastes – the Twilight franchise is ample proof of that. Who am I to judge?

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Shilpa covers Bollywood and entertainment for Reuters India since 2008. She has previously worked with DNA and the Press Trust of India, covering train blasts in Mumbai, a constitutional crisis in Goa and protests in New Delhi. On Twitter, she's @shilpajay.